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John Krasinski wasn’t the first choice to play Reed Richards

While most people fancast John Krasinski as Reed Richards years ago, it seems MCU bosses had other actors in mind for the Fantastic Four character

Reed Richards in Fantastic 4 comics

It feels like the internet has wanted John Krasinski to play Reed Richards in the MCU for the best part of a decade now, and with the actor’s recent Doctor Strange 2 cameo appearance, that dream fancasting finally came true. But, it turns out Krasinski wasn’t always the first choice to play Reed Richards, with Marvel bosses having other ideas.

With the Fantastic Four family getting their own MCU movie at some point in the future, it would appear the foundations have been laid for the leader of the superhero team. Reed Richards, also known as Mister Fantastic, is the incredibly intelligent, stretchy-limbed patriarch of the comic book quartet, and Krasinski has long been touted as the perfect man for the role.

Well, Kevin Feige and the Marvel top dogs obviously didn’t agree, as they had another very high profile actor lined up for the role. According to Deadline’s senior film reporter Justin Kroll, none other than James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, was all set to fulfil the role until Covid scuppered those plans.

Apparently, Craig was ready to go, but when Covid cases began to rise again, he backed out as he was unwilling to risk bringing the virus back to his family for the sake of a film shoot.

“Fun fact, Krasinski wasn’t the first choice, the actor originally set to play the role was all set to shoot but when there was an uptick in Covid cases, he backed out as he was living in London and didn’t think the quick shoot was worth risk of bringing back COVID to the fam,” Kroll tweeted, alongside a GIF of Daniel Craig as 007.

It does seem like an odd casting choice though. Craig doesn’t really fit the bill of what Reed Richards is about, but maybe that’s just because it’s hard to imagine him doing anything other than being the face of the James Bond franchise.

Whether this is true or not, the fates clearly aligned for John Krasinski to play the part he was seemingly born to play. It remains to be seen whether John Krasinski will appear in the Fantastic Four MCU movie, but it would seem likely that he will be a part of the MCU timeline moving forward.

The Fantastic Four MCU movie release date is yet to be announced, but we reckon we will get some updates from that project in the next month or so, once the dust has settled from Doctor Strange 2.